Matt's Plants & Co – Australia

We have beautiful deep red tulips flowering at the moment, bringing a burst of colour to our garden during this seasonal change.

Most of our winter vegies are coming to the end of their useful lives and our spring crops are still waiting for the warmer weather to thrive, so the tulips have filled in the gap.

It’s the first time we’ve grown tulips and they’ve been pretty care free but they have copped it a fair bit from the wind.

It was so strong one day that we had to move the tulips to a sheltered spot to stop them from being any more destroyed. The pedals were literally being blown off the stems.

Originally the tulip pots – with about four to five bulbs in each – were spread across the backyard. But I found they had more of an impact placed together.

And more so in ceramic white pots than the black plastic I originally had them in.

My grandfather, Opa, gave me two old-fashioned pots recently so I popped the plastic pots in them as a tribute to where he immigrated from – Holland.

Although I have since discovered tulips are not native to the Netherlands – although they’re often associated with the region – with Britannica indicating they’re native to Central Asia and Turkey, with cultivation likely beginning in Persia (Iran).

But Tulip Mania did happen in the Netherlands. Tulip Mania could be likened to the housing bubble in the 2000s.

But this was in the 1600s and everyone wanted in on rare tulip bulbs until people were taking out loans for the bulbs and prices became so high that most people could not afford them and the prices came crashing down.

Now, back to my tulips. I paid around $30 for a 20 pack of ‘Pallada’ Triumph Tulips.

The packaging said they were hardy and easy to grow, and no chilling would be required in Victoria (as well as SA, WA, TAS and cooler NSW).

It also said they would not need yearly lifting if fed well after blooming.

So these were all ticks for me. The easier, the better.

Now, as for what the packaging said what was needed and what would happen vs what actually went down.

It said full sun and part sun, and low water. All correct. I probably watered them too much, if anything.

It said perfect in pots – tick – although as mentioned before I prefer them in white pots, and they would grow to 35cm-45cm – also a tick.

I planted them in early July and had flowers coming through in September.

All I have to do now is cut off the flower stems once they’re spent and put the pots aside until next season.

Finally, it would be remiss of me not to mention the Tesselaar Tulip Festival is on now until mid-October.

Happy gardening!